Don Lemon Apologizes to CNN Staff After Nikki Haley Comments | THR News - video Dailymotion

The morning anchor wasn't on Friday's show but called into a meeting to walk back his remarks about the presidential hopeful.

Transcript

00:00Don Lemon has apologized to CNN staff for the comments he made about former South Carolina

00:04governor and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley. The CNN anchor called into a staff meeting

00:10Friday and offered an apology to co-workers during a daily editorial call at the news network

00:15for saying 51-year-old Haley was past her prime on Thursday's episode of CNN This Morning.

00:21Sources say he owned up to his badly chosen words and said he stands against sexism and racism.

00:26He also thanked his female colleagues. In announcing her candidacy for the Republican

00:30presidential nomination, Haley said there should be a mental competency test for any politician over

00:36age 75, something that would apply to both President Joe Biden and fellow Republican

00:40candidate Donald Trump. This was Lemon's take. She says people, you know, politicians or something

00:45are not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime. Sorry. A woman is considered being in her

00:49prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s. That's not according to me. Even though Lemon's comments

00:55didn't sit well with co-anchor Poppy Harlow, he didn't walk them back during the show.

00:59If you Google, when is a woman in her prime, it'll say, if you Google, when is a woman in her prime,

01:04it'll say 20s, 30s and 40s. I don't necessarily agree with that. So I think she has to be careful

01:11about saying that. Later on Thursday, Lemon took to Twitter to apologize. He wrote,

01:15The reference I made to a woman's prime this morning was inartful and irrelevant,

01:20as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it. A woman's age doesn't define

01:24her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every

01:29day. The anchor had the day off from CNN this morning on Friday, a break that was already

01:33scheduled before Thursday's on-air dust-up. For more on this story, go to THR.com.

01:38This is The Hollywood Reporter News.